Fractal Design made the interior of the Core 3000 black but they also painted the HDD trays and card covers gloss white. The company is also using fans with a black frame and white blades. The contrasting theme looks original but the case would need a windowed side panel for it to be of any use. The motherboard tray is cut behind the CPU area, allowing the installation of large CPU coolers without having to remove the motherboard from the case.

Two of the exhaust fans can be found mounted inside the case. The rear fan is a 120mm fan rated at 1200RPM maximum speed and the top fan is a 140mm fan rated at 1000RPM maximum speed.

A total of six HDD trays are present at the lower front part of the case, divided between two cages. The top cage is removable while the lower cage is not. The HDD trays and very nicely made, with rubber grommets to minimize vibration noise and support for 2.5” drives (laptop HDDs and SSDs) as well.

Fractal design placed a filter beneath the PSU area which can be removed from the rear of the case without having to open any side panel. There is also another 120mm intake fan slot at the bottom of the case, unoccupied. You may use any size ATX PSU with the Core 3000 but if you install a 120mm fan at the bottom of the case you are strictly limited to standard ATX size (maximum depth of 160mm) PSUs.

The third cooling fan is mounted at the front of the case, cooling the top three HDDs. Another 140mm can be mounted to further increase the case’s cooling performance and add cooling for the lower three HDDs as well. The company placed a dust filter behind the entire faceplate mesh.

An adaptor for an 3.5” floppy or another 3.5” device which requires access to the front panel, like a card reader or fan controller, can be found inserted in the bottom 5.25” device slot. You may remove it if you want to install two 5.25” devices.

Our ICTT system fits inside the Core 3000 comfortably. There is not too much room for hiding cables but by using the holes right behind the HDD trays and a lot of patience most of the cables can be routed behind the motherboard tray.